Brooke turns 2! 18 March 2010

Thursday Brooke turned 2! We enjoyed our traditional birthday pancake breakfast.....for dinner :)

Brooke continues to progress each day. We are grateful for every little thing she does! About a month ago she finally put something in her mouth....it was a chocolate chip....guess she knows what she wants. :) Brooke LOVES to walk...with some assistance. We are hopeful it won't be long before she is walking all by herself.

Here she's holding up (almost) two fingers to say, "I'm two!" She is such a sweetheart. We love her so much and are so grateful she is part of our family.

And, to finish off the day, we had angel food cake with fresh, real whipped cream and super yummy strawberries(just like last year on her first birthday)...this is the perfect time of year for strawberries here, so we have decided we'll make this a tradition!

Love this blog!...especially today's post :)

Ok...so, I'm not that great of a blogger...but, I do enjoy reading a few other blogs here and there when I have a moment, every once in a blue moon. And, today was the day :)....and I thought I'd share. I love this one. Hope you enjoy it, too.

http://lovelypraiseworthy.blogspot.com/2010/03/personally-id-rather-have-paint-box.html

Snow in South Carolina!!!

In the almost 5 years we have lived in South Carolina, the only snow we have seen was a random tiny snowflake or two that lasted only a few seconds in the air on one cool "winter" day two years ago. This time, however, was different....very different. Before the snow even began falling on Friday afternoon (about 3pm), the school district decided to send their students home early. The kids were all VERY excited to say the least. Quinn decided that we'd better have some fire wood ready so we could have a nice toasty fire to sit by and enjoy the snow. So he got right to work chopping wood. Savannah (left) and her friend Katelyn built a snowman with the neighbors as the snow fell in earnest.

The snow continued to fall pretty heavily for the rest of the afternoon and into the night. It was amazing! Here's Quinn, Brenden and Ammon with their snowmen later that evening.

Apparently, I got the above photo from the backside....this is the front of the snowmen....

The next morning, it was a winter wonderland!!!

Here's Ammon on our back portch.Brenden took the kids sledding on a fun hill nearby (at a golf course). They had a GRAND time!!!....I knew there was a reason we moved our sleds with us from Utah :)

Amazingly enough, the snow melted about as fast as it had come. By Sunday most of the snow had melted....and temperatures soon returned to the low 60's.....it was fun while it lasted :)

Quinn turned 7 today!

Christmas in Indy, Part 2

Ok...part 2 of our Indy trip....Christmas Eve we visited the Indianapolis Museum of Art. This is our favorite exhibit.


That evening we had a live nativity with all the cousins. Here's a photo of the shepherds. :)
The day after Christmas we enjoyed a trip to the world's largest Children's Museum. We got to go "sledding" down a two story slide....


have a snowball fight....brush Rudolph....




play in a snow castle.....
and play with other cool toys....
see a play in the Lilly Theater and meet Mr. Pumpkinhead after.....

see a show about the planets in the planetarium, dig for dinosaur bones.....

and, of course, ride the famous carosel!!!!
We had a lot of fun!!! We love the Indy Children's Museum.

Here's the promised picture with Cheryl and her baby, Lilian.
So, now there's also a Part 3....sledding on real snow! :)

13 years of published medical studies were FABRICATED?!

Ok.....so, I still haven't gotten to "Part 2" of Christmas.....and it may never happen with the way my life is going...NONSTOP. But, I just happened to come across this news today http://www.theday.com/article/20100115/NWS01/100119833/1047....I suppose it shouldn't surprise me....but, somehow it did and I felt to ask "who can you trust?" I am grateful for modern science/technology. I have been very blessed by it. However, I'm feeling pretty strongly these days that modern medicines/pills must be questioned. I know there are a lot of medicines out there that are helpful, but I also feel that too many are only there to make money....and after reading this article, to make money at the expense of the patient! Crazy. Sad. Even makes me feel a little sick. Here's to the Word of Wisdom!....we will, of course, have our physical trials and challenges, but we have comfort in knowing what the Lord expects us to do to maintain our health.

Christmas in Indiana: Part 1

We had the most wonderful opportunity to spend Christmas with my parents and my brother and his family in Indiana! Getting there was a bit of an adventure (the 24 hour flu bug decided to strike the weekend before we were to depart on Tuesday...happily it left on Monday....we decided to leave on Wednesday just to make sure it really was gone! And, as we drove to Indy, we learned that our chosen route included a mountain that had fallen over...not just a few rocks either....so we had to take a two hour detour. Happily it was a beautiful day and the kids did great...and we didn't even have the laptop for movie viewing with us this time....pretty impressive, I know :)...in between reading and coloring and sleeping, they actually looked out the window and enjoyed the drive...all 13+ hours of it!)

Leading up to our departure, we had been tracking the weather forecast for Indiana. We were so excited to see SNOW predicted for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday....that would mean a white Christmas...and time for playing in the snow there! While it didn't turn out to be a white Christmas, it did snow on Saturday and Sunday and there was enough snow to go sledding on Monday before we left on Tuesday! :) We found the best hill in town, which happened to be private property...so, Brenden knocked on the door and explained we were from South Carolina where it doesn't usually snow and that we had 7 children that were hoping to go sledding....and well, how could anyone say no to that? :) They had a great time! (Pictures to follow in Part 2.)

So....we had lots of fun while at Grandma and Grandpa Mac's. We went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the World's Largest (and best) Children's Museum (pictures also to follow in Part 2).

We spent one evening making gingerbread houses...a favorite tradition. The four younger kids (Quinn, Ammon, Cali and Raquel) worked together with Grandma in the kitchen on one.
And, the older ones (Elise, Kylie, Chet and Savannah) worked on one in the dining room. Grandma had made special gingerbread men aprons for the kids to wear...so cute! They were all having a great time when....The kitchen crew's house came tumbling down (I think the kids must've loaded it with too much candy :) )....the kids didn't seem to mind, though, as they had fun eating their creation.The dining room crew completed their house over two days...it was absolutely beautiful.Christmas morning was lots of fun. This photo was taken as everyone enjoyed discovering the contents their stockings. What a houseful we had...and there were 6 more that aren't in this picture.

I gave Grandma soft, warm jammies and made a special fleece lined knitted cap and scarf for Grandpa. I was happy to learn that he wears his cap faithfully each night as he sleeps to keep him warm. :)
We have a family tradition of taking a family photo on the Sunday near Christmas....so here's 2009 Christmas Sunday photo. It's difficult to get Brooke to look at the camera these days...especially when we're shooting with a timer. Happily everyone else is looking at the camera and smiling! :)

This was our Sunday dinner....beautifully set table, beautiful family. (Stephen and his family were with Juli's family that day. Elise is holding Sierra, Maggie's daughter. Both Sierra and Raquel spent Christmas with all of us there. Not sure where Raquel is for this picture....)

We also got to see our good friends the Larson's while in Indy. We got to see a spot of land just down the street from them where there are plans to build a stake center....and hopefully a temple sometime in the next few years or so! This picture was taken at the Larson's home...I did get a photo with Cheryl, but it's turned sideways...so, I'll have to fix that and post that later.

Our time in Indiana always goes so fast! I so enjoyed the visit...got to sew with Mom, read some old letters from my Grandfather Chet and others, and just being together for Christmas....we now have wonderful memories to cherish!

Here is our traditional photo that we always take just before climbing into the van and driving away. It's fun to look at these "concluding" photos over the years....
We love our family so much and look forward to visiting them again! Life is good.